LORETTO, Pa. – Senior Shane Conley (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) and junior Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa. / Conneaut Valley) reached career milestones, and then helped the Saint Francis men's volleyball team rally from a 2-0 deficit to hand IPFW an improbable 3-2 loss on Saturday night at DeGol Arena.
The Red Flash had two opportunities to secure a victory in the first set, but the Mastodons came back for a 31-29 win. IPFW pulled away for a 30-24 win in the second set for a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 format. However, Conley became the first player in school history to 4,000 career assists, and Varee became the school's all-time leader in kills, in the third set, and SFU rallied for wins, 30-27, 30-18, 15-7, in the last three sets to pull off the win.
Conley needed 40 assists coming into the match to reach 4,000 for his career. He finished with 57, along with seven kills, a .455 hitting percentage, eight digs and three blocks. Varee broke the all-time kills record of former teammate Marc Honore (San Fernando, Trinidad/Naparima) with his 14th of the evening. He finished with 25 kills, a .386 hitting percentage, two aces, 14 digs and four blocks. Varee finished the night with 1,160 career kills, 12 more than Honore's 1,148 total.
Junior Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Fox Chapel) hit .421 with 20 kills and four digs, junior Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) (Orchard Park, N.Y. / Orchard Park) hit .778 with seven kills, one ace and six blocks and junior Alex Fortney (York, PA/Central York) (York, Pa. / Central York) added seven kills, one ace and 10 digs.
IPFW was paced by Darryl Shank with 20 kills and five blocks, while Corey Stewart had 42 assists, and Oliver Kook and Nathaniel Berg had 11 kills each.
Tied at 27-27 in the first set, a pair of attack errors set up a chance at an early win for the Red Flash. However, the Mastodons won four straight serves to steal the win, 31-29.
The second set was tied at 17-17 before IPFW went on a 9-1 run to pull ahead. SFU never got any closer as the Mastodons pulled ahead, 2-0, with a 30-24 victory.
The third set was another tight one through a 13-13 deadlock. Varee broke Honore's all-time record with his 14th kill of the night to give the Red Flash a 13-12 lead. After IPFW tied it at 13-13, Saint Francis went on a 4-0 run and never trailed in the final three sets the rest of the way. Freyer clinched the third set win with a kill to make it 30-27.
The Red Flash hit .571 in the fourth set in taking a 30-18 convincing win, and then held the Mastodons to a -0.67 hitting percentage in a 15-7 fifth-set victory.
